Billy Corgan questions if he influenced Kanye West’s approach to fame

Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has speculated whether his career strategy influenced Kanye West’s public persona. During an appearance on Popcast with host Jon Caramanica, Corgan addressed comparisons between his own celebrity style and West’s.

Corgan described their shared approach as a “cognitive dissonance game,” a method of using provocative behavior and picking fights to force audiences to decide whether an artist is a “genius or an idiot.” He noted that while he did not know West personally at the time, he recalled West working near him in Chicago during the production of the Smashing Pumpkins album “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.”

While Corgan acknowledged the similarities in how both artists navigate controversy and public perception, he expressed uncertainty about whether West was directly influenced by him or if the approach was simply “in the water.”